1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermometer, and more particularly, concerns an oral thermometer having one or more mouth grips for inhibiting the thermometer from sliding out of the mouth of the user.
2. Background Description
In the use of clinical thermometers to measure temperature of a living being, it is quite convenient to obtain the body temperature from the mouth cavity. Thermometers have been used in this fashion for many years, one such thermometer being the well-known B-D.sup.R brand glass thermometer which uses a thin column of liquid mercury as the operative element for measuring temperature along a linear scale. Lately, digital thermometers have been gaining acceptance for use in measuring body temperatures of a living being.
Particularly in those instances where the thermometer is used for orally measuring the temperature of a living being, the mouthpiece element, whether on a well-known glass thermometer or the more recent digital thermometers, is generally a smooth-surfaced elongate probe for insertion into the mouth of the living being. If the individual whose temperature is being measured is, for example, a child, the smooth surface on the mouth receiving portion of the thermometer may create slippage problems, particularly if salivation occurs. If the thermometer slips out of the individual's mouth, it is appreciated that the temperature reading may be inaccurate or unreliable. Accordingly, there is a need to provide an anti-slip-page mechanism on the mouth-receiving portion of thermometers for measuring temperature from the oral cavity.
One such thermometer mouthpiece for releasably holding a thermometer at a pre-determined location, so that the positioning of the device in the mouth of a user results in the proper extension of the thermometer bulb into the mouth cavity, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,794. U.S. Pat. No. 2,445,539 discloses a clinical thermometer with non-circular spaced flanges for locating the thermometer in the mouth of a patient. U.S. Pat. No. 2,579,376 discloses a resilient finger grip for thermometer.
Notwithstanding the device described in the aforementioned patent, further improvements for holding a thermometer within the oral cavity during the measuring period are still being sought. It is to such an improvement that the present invention is directed.